The Wedding Plan

Chapter 40

Eleanor woke up from her trance and looked at the water hiding her flustered face. Lina chuckled.

'He used to swim when he was younger. He went to competitions and everything. Sports is probably the only hobby that he still has nowadays. I think it helps him deal with stress.'

That certainly explains the mystery of his looks. Thought Eleanor.

'Right now, he goes to a boxing gym two to three times a week. I went with him once.'

'Really? He usually doesn't like to have people hovering around. When he did competitive swimming, not even I was allowed to go.' Lina giggled. 'Well, he's changing, I guess. That's a good thing. Although, I would prefer if he were into something else. Something less dangerous would be better. But he doesn't listen to anyone.'

'Let's hope it's just a phase.'

They both chuckled.

Sebastian started swimming towards the two women.

'How did you two met?' his sister asked them.

'I'm an intern at the company,' Eleanor said, even though she was afraid of Lina's reaction.

'I thought that you had a rule about not dating people from your workplace.'

'I do, but all rules have exceptions, don't they?'

'I suppose they do.'

Lina's cell phone rang, so she left the water to pick it up.

'She didn't seem thrilled about it,' Eleanor said worriedly.

'She's just being careful. Don't look so worried.'

'How am I supposed to not be worried?'

'Just have fun,' he said with a smirk as he wrapped his cold arms around her.

'No! No! Sebastian!'

Too late. He pulled her into the water and hugged her tightly.

'See, not that cold.'

She wrapped her arms around him and hid her face in his neck.

'Sebastian, I'm not a good swimmer,' she said. And the tone of her voice let him know she was about to cry.

'Don't worry. This part of the pool is not deep, stretch your legs, you can touch the bottom.'

Eleanor tried to calm herself and did as he told her. The tip of her toes felt the pool tiles. She was able to slow down her breath and as she breathed properly, she could smell Sebastian's scent.

'You should've told me when Lina suggested we should meet them here,' he said, as he was holding her head between his hands.

Sebastian brushed away with his fingers the hair that was clinging onto her face and caressed her cheeks with his thumbs.

'Are you okay now?'

She nodded.

After seeing her scared like that, Sebastian's heart ached. She got like that because of something he did, and he realized he never wanted to experience that again; he didn't want to hurt her in any way, ever.

Without thinking, he kissed her, grabbed her against his body without caring about the fact that they weren't alone.

With a heavy breathing, he broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers.

After that incident, Sebastian helped Eleanor to get out of the pool. He swam a bit more to cool off his head while the women talked to each other, relaxing on lounge chairs.

The women talked about many things. They talked about Sebastian's company, Lina's business, and volunteering, how Lina and Ian had met... Lina learned about how intelligent and bright Eleanor was, how kind-hearted. They could not be getting along any better.

'I see why he fell for you. But I honestly don't see how you put up with him.'

'It's not hard at all.'

'Really?' Lina frowned.

'Well, he is always late, gets bored easily, and he is always nagging Miss Clark because he is bored and says he needs a break. He is kind of a control freak, that doesn't have a favorite color and is a plant killer,' — Eleanor blushed and took a deep breath before continuing — 'but he's also kind and considerate and somehow, he is actually managing to arrive on time to our dates. Instead of letting me wait like he did the first couple of times, he even arrived earlier, actually.'

Lina smiled from ear to ear. Even though arriving early didn't seem like much for anyone that knew Sebastian, it was a big deal, since besides when it came to his own family, he tended to not care if everyone was waiting for him or not.

'Clearly Larissa has it a lot harder than we do.'

Both women laughed.

'By the way, she'll be here the day after tomorrow. I'm hoping that the three of us can enjoy some time together.'

Eleanor made a scared face.

'She is my boss. I'll feel awkward. It should be just the two of you.'

'Nonsense. Here Larissa is just Larissa, and not your boss. She's on vacation. You don't need to feel like that.'

But she did, especially because Miss Clark knew the truth about the deal that Sebastian and she had before they started dating.